Local author Gaston looks to her own life as genesis of new novel

Many authors, when looking for subjects of the most emotional value, turn inward to their own lives as a jumping off point. And that’s just what Greenwich’s Rozsa Gaston has done in her latest novel.

In Black Is Not A Color (Unless Worn By A Blonde), Ms. Gaston writes of a young woman reconnecting with her father after many years of estrangement. In this story, Ava Fodor is a woman with a thriving career and a budding new romance who was not raised by her father only to find herself having to take care of him over the course of the final year of his life. Despite not knowing her father, and having all the resentment and confusion that comes with that, Ava finds herself drawn to the eccentric Transylvanian/Hungarian man with his passion and zest for life even as it slips away.

“It doesn’t start that way, but this is a book that ends up being about elder care,” Ms. Gaston told the Post in an interview last week. “That’s not a very sexy subject, but it is an extremely topical one and this is definitely a book for Baby Boomers to read and also for those younger than Baby Boomers who are going to be facing this down the line. This is about caring for an aging parent who didn’t raise you as a child. That changes the conversation. Her relationship with her father is she’s just discovering him for the first time as a 30-year-old woman and he’s from a completely different culture.”

Ms. Gaston indeed drew from her own relationship with her father for the book but only in a loose way. It might be the genesis for the story, but it quickly goes in its own direction.

“My father was a Hungarian/Transylvanian refugee from the 1956 Hungarian uprising and I did not get to know him until I was older,” Ms. Gaston said. “I met him when I was about 16 and I wanted to work through feelings about our relationship. Writing the book ended up being a wonderful eye opener for me to realize how much my father actually did give me and how satisfying it was for me that when he did die I did the right thing. I might not have done the best job of doing the right thing, but I knew I did the right thing. I wanted to share that journey and writing this book allowed me to develop a deeper appreciation for my father.”

In the book, while Ava finds herself trying to relate to someone she doesn’t know and who comes from an entirely different cultural frame of mind than she has, she also has to struggle with the feelings of abandonment she has always had toward her father while finding herself drawn to him and his unique style. The more she learns about him the more she relates to her father which makes things even more difficult and that’s before life further complicates her romance…but to find out more you’re going to have to read the book which is available at Amazon.com and can also be ordered from Rozsagaston.com.

“The great thing about this book is that there’s progress between Ava and her father and the reason there’s progress is that her father is very forgiving,” Ms. Gaston said. “He didn’t parent her and she’s his only child so he didn’t parent anyone and he knows he was not a father at all. So he forgives her for whatever she says to him and how she acts toward him. He just wants to get to know her because he does love her and always has loved her.”

This book, which was first released in March, is a sequel to Paris Adieu, which had Ava living as an au pair coming of age in Paris. The romance between Ava and Pierre that began in the first book is a major theme in this new book. Ms. Gaston is quick to compare her lead character to widely known characters like Bridget Jones or Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City in that she’s no saint and can be a complicated person, but is someone readers want to root for.

“As soon as I finished Paris Adieu, I realized that Ava took on a life of her own and that I owed it to her to continue her story,” Ms. Gaston said. “And I owe it to her now to also continue her story through another book if not more.”

That book is still in the planning stages but Ms. Gaston is eager to get to work. A driven writer with several books to her name, Ms. Gaston said she loves to think ahead. Her next book, Sense of Touch, is inspired by the famed The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries at the Cluny Museum in Paris. No one has ever definitively sourced who the women are in those tapestries, which date back to the 1490’s, and this story is a historical fiction exploring that mystery.

However that story might have to wait until 2015 as Ms. Gaston is planning on having her sequel to Black Is Not A Color done by the fall.

But she will stop long enough to sign copies of her book this week. Tomorrow, May 23, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Doncaster pop up boutique at 219 East Putnam Avenue in Cos Cob, Ms. Gaston will be on hand for a book signing. More information is available at Rozsagaston.com.

Once, just a few Aprils ago, I was a freshman in college and forced to memorize the first twelve lines of the prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Imagine my delight when I realized that Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales were terribly tickly, not to mention positively ribald in parts! Not some old, moldy, medieval stanzas, but colorful, naughty and well worth the effort to make out the Olde English words.

Here’s first twelve lines of the most sensational poem written about April I’ve ever come across. Enjoy!

WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the fleur;

Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,

And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye,
So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

And palmers for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,

The holy blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

“Did you sleep?” Narcisa whispered to me as the owner of the male voice headed toward the nearest silver-tray-carrying waiter to capture two glasses of white wine for us.
“Did I what?”
“Did you sleep?” she asked again.
“Yes. I slept well, thank you” I answered confusedly. Did I look tired to her?
“You don’t have to tell me who it was. But tell me—who was it?”
“Uh—it was me. I mean I slept well. Didn’t you?”
“Ohhh no. I didn’t sleep. I had friends who helped me,” Narcisa whispered back, one eyebrow lifted significantly.
“Ohhh, I see. Uh—no I didn’t sleep. I—uh- took the tests last spring and they called me the beginning of August.” Startled by the conversational curveball, I stepped back from Narcisa, still intrigued but alerted that I had no idea who I was dealing with. The U.N. was on international territory. American rules no longer applied.
“The tests. Everyone takes the tests. So what? How did you get the job?” she pressed.
“Like I said, I took the tests. That was it. I waited, I gave up hope, then they called.” I shrugged in what I hoped was the classic Gallic way, perfected by my recent stay in Paris.
Narcisa studied me as I spoke. It was like taking a lie-detector test. Suddenly I felt as if I’d slept even when I hadn’t.
“So you just took the tests and they called you. That was it?”
“Yes,” I said, crisply. I tried to look like I wasn’t lying, even when I wasn’t. It was confusing talking to Narcisa.

The point in life…is to find equilibrium in what is inherently unstable.~Pierre Reverdy from Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney

Who is Pierre Reverdy? An early twentieth century French poet and influencer of others. He made Arthur Rimbaud look like a choir boy.

Reverdy was a dear friend of Gabrielle Coco Chanel. Handsome, independent, a trifle brutish, he appealed to the peasant woman buried deep inside the exquisite Chanel.

In other words, Chanel’s bad boy. Need I say more?

Find out more about bad boys in my latest book Black is Not a Color, sequel to Paris Adieu. Out in audiobook, it’s the story of Ava Fodor’s struggle to care for her father while cultivating her relationship with her new French boyfriend Pierre. Not a bad boy. Too good for Ava, in her mind, in fact.

Can Ava measure up? First she needs to measure up to caring for her father, who didn’t raise her as a child. Not easy.

Ava is not the only grown up child of a parent who didn’t raise her. There are many men and women with such a tale out there. Coco Chanel was one. If Ava’s idol Chanel could get beyond a rough start in life, so can Ava. So can you.

Listen to Ava’s story in Black is Not a Color and take inspiration. Move out of the shadows of a less than ideal childhood and take your place in the sun. Coco Chanel is your lodestar. And Ava’s story in Black is Not a Color will help you find the hero within yourself.

George Bodarky, host of Cityscape, will interview author Rozsa Gaston about running with the Van Cortlandt Track Club, running in Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, and topics touched upon in her book Running from Love such as overcoming downhill running and relationship fears. The discussion should be of interest to runners in general and specifically to runners on track clubs who have thought about or experienced dating a fellow member of their club. Tune in to 90.7 FM, WFUV, Fordham University’s alternative music station and learn how to stop running from love. I’ll be listening myself. Hope I learn something and I hope you do too.

Warmly, Rozsa

P.S. Who’s Alexander McCall Smith? A simply amazing writer and the author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, a fictitious tale of a female detective set in Botswana. I love this book!

To kick off my new year’s resolution, I took the family to see Pinkalicious the Musical by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann. It’s the story of Pinkalicious, who can’t stop eating pink cupcakes, despite warnings from her parents. Her pink indulgence lands her at the doctor’s office with Pinkititis, an affliction that turns her pink from head to toe – a dream come true for this pink enthusiast. But when her hue goes to far, only Pinkalicious can figure out how to get out of her predicament! Now playing at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, 248 W. 60th St., next to Lincoln Center in Manhattan.http://www.pinkaliciousthemusical.com/

For me, the most important line in the play was when Pinkalicious’s mom sings to her “Life isn’t always fair. You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” That line sang to me as I noticed my eleven year old daughter next to me, taking it in. She knows about getting what you get even when what you get isn’t fair. My job is to help her handle what she’s got like the princess she is.

Go see Pinkalicious the Musical. It’s a fun story with a serious message. Like my coming of age tale, Paris Adieu, now out on amazon.com and barnes and noble.com.

And think about thinking pink this year. It will help you get through the moments when life seems unfair.

Anna Karenina understood, the Hegelian Dialectic unlocked, why fission and fusion need each other, and how to wear a scarf are all covered in this three-hundred page journey through Ava Fodor’s brain, illuminated by her time in the City of Light.

When Ava Fodor first visits Paris as a nineteen-year old au pair, her French boyfriend introduces her to the concept of being comfortable in her own skin. If only she knew how…

One Ivy League degree later, she’s back for an encounter with a Frenchman that awakens her to womanhood. If only she could stay…

Five years later, Ava returns to Paris as a singer/pianist. She falls for Arnaud, whose frequent travel tortures her. While he’s away, a surprising stranger helps Ava on her journey to self-discovery. Armed with the lessons Paris has taught her, she bids adieu to Arnaud, Pierre and her very first love – the City of Light.

Where can I buy Paris Adieu?

Find Paris Adieu right here from Dec. 16, 2011 on, with a link to http://www.amazon.com, Smashwords, or Barnesandnoble.com where it will be available for purchase. The perfect holiday gift to those who enjoy reading about unlocking the door to self-empowerment. Follow Ava on her adventures in Paris and find out how she travels from clueless American abroad to taking the steering wheel of her own life.

Coming out on amazon.com, Dec. 16, 2011

Advance praise for Paris Adieu

After A Moveable Feast, the top book for those who love to read about Paris

“Like all of Gaston’s work, Paris Adieu is full of fun and charm. After A Moveable Feast, it is the top book for anyone who remembers all of the frivolity and seriousness that go with the French and the City of Light.”

“Literate men will love Rozsa Gaston’s elegant, sexy, and almost impossibly witty look inside the hidden world of women (and will fall in love with the author). Buy this book – and keep it on your nightstand.”

— Laurence Siegel, winner of the Graham and Dodd and EDHEC-Robeco awards for investment writing

* * *

Fasten your Seat Belt for a Sensual Ride

“Fasten your seat belt for a sensual ride through a young American woman’s journey through France. Learning about the pleasures of life, from tasty food to passionate awakening with a French lover, is a feast for the senses.”

— Susie Piturro

* * *

Fresh and Enchanting

“Ms. Gaston has written a fresh, enchanting story of a young American woman who finds refuge in Paris from the staid New England morality stifling her spirit. Over three stays in Paris, Ava comes to know the city in all its color. She encounters a quirky assortment of men who introduce her to the concept of being comfortable in her own skin, then show her how. With delightful insight into the female mind, we see Ava explore the heights and depths of her womanhood and discover a lifelong gift in what she has learned about herself.”

— Don Dickey

* * *

Coming of Age in Paris

“Ava Fodor is young, funny and ready for trouble, particularly when it comes to French men. From the opening pages, Ava engages with her wry voice. This is a story that’s certain to touch a chord with readers who may remember their own first efforts to find love.”

— Susan Breen, author of The Fiction Class

* * *

Sexy Page-Turner with a French Twist

“With vivid detail and humor, Gaston takes readers straight into the heart of Paris, where we smell pastries from the corner bakery and meander through famous parks and museums. We meet the French lover who shows Ava how to feel “comfortable in her own skin.” Throughout, Gaston writes with a deep appreciation for sensuality that will keep readers attentive to Ava’s every adventure.”

“Sexy, witty, and charming, Paris Adieu takes you away from everyday life, back to a time when everything was new and adventurous. A great read for any book club as well as something to give your life a little romantic flavor.”

— Kathy Chattoraj, visual artist

* * *

Paris Adieu is a must read

“Paris Adieu is a must read for every woman, young and old, as a reminder of how we evolved into who we are today. Naiveté was such a blessing, wasn’t it?”

— Terri Valentine, author of Sands of Time and Sea Dream

* * *

Couldn’t put it down

“I didn’t want to say adieu to Ava’s adventures in Paris. Ava untangles herself from her grandmother’s meddlesome web in Connecticut, to find herself bedazzled by Paris, its culture, and its people. As the pages and lovers turn quickly, Ava metamorphoses from naive, young know-nothing to a creative, strong-minded, independent woman — Voilà!”

— Mary Agoglia

* * *

Refreshing and captivating

“Follow Ava Fodor, a bright, likeable young American, as she becomes an inspired, passionate woman amid the elegance and grandeur of Paris — a refreshing and captivating tale.”

— Laura Brengelman, editor and writer

Find Paris Adieu and its sequel, Black is Not a Color, on Amazon Now

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